New Storytelling Radio Program
KSVY-FM 91.3, Sonoma, CA
http://www.ksvy.org
Sundays, 5-6 pm Pacific time (adjust for your time zone)
Live audio streaming: Go to the KSVY website. In the upper
right-hand corner, click on High or Low Speed and find
yourself listening to the live program.
Or access the archives later and download.
Theme music: Special thanks to Petra Koch in Germany (she works with Storyteller Richard Martin), who performed the beautifully haunting alto recorder music of Como Podem from the 13th century collection Cantigas de Santa Maria (copy of Kynsecker, Mollenhauer & Co.). Used on this program with her kind permission.
PROGRAM 5:
Oct 22 Mountain Lore!
Sandy Farley (CA)
(Alone)
Charles Kiernan (PA)
(Alma and the Graveyard; Henway; Uncle Willard's Catfish )
Mike Lockett, the Normal Storyteller (Normal, IL)
(Old Dry Fry; The Preacher's Horse; The Cat's Tale)
••••••
MOUNTAIN LORE
Guest tellers...
Sandy Farley (Redwood City, California)
(for earlier interview with Sandy and Tom Farley for Story-Lovers World! Program 3, go to
http://www.story-lovers.com/radiopgm3.html )
Storytelling and Story Writing for All Ages
Tandem telling is two or more tellers sharing one story. Tom and Sandy Farley bring together their experience with solo telling, improvisation, story theatre, and cooperative recreation, all of which they also teach.
Since 1979, they have been telling traditional and contemporary stories for schools, libraries, book stores, hospitals, churches, summer camps, fairs, Kiwanis Clubs, corporate events, birthdays, etc. Themes they like include: conflict resolution, youth empowerment, cultural diversity, disabilities, wisdom, and where stories come from.
Based in Redwood City, CA, they perform most often between San Francisco and San Jose, but they do travel beyond the Bay Area to do performances and workshops, usually for Kiwanis or Quaker related events.
•••••
Excerpts from telephone interview with Sandy Farley:
Q. Let's talk first just a little bit about you as a solo teller.
A. I got into storytelling through tandem telling with my husband because he was the first storyteller, and then I realized that I've been telling stories all my life in other ways. I'd been telling jokes and I'd been telling anecdotes, illustrative stories. I'm a teacher so you always stick things into the curriculum to help people rmember things. I'm very good at trying to help people remember things and finding ways to make that work...
Q. Tell us about Alone.
A. Alone is something that I reached back into an experience that I had many years ago and then wrote it up as a story. Everything is true, but I've rewritten it in order to make it more of a story, and then I realized that it wasn't something that would lend itself to tandem telling because I was alone in this whole story. There's no dialogue.
Q. That's for susre. And you're a very brave woman, I must say.
A. You know, really, sometimes "brave" is not the word. It's "foolhardy."
•••••
Tom and Sandy's CDs may be ordered at:
• CD Baby
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/tomsandy
• Linden Tree Children's Books and Recordings
http://lindentree.booksense.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp
• or Spontaneous Combustion
farley@spont.com
Contact Tom and Sandy at:
http://www.spont.com/
•••••
•••••
Charles Kiernan (Schnecksville, PA)
Charles performs American tales collecctively labeled as the Lost Dollar stories. This collection of wisdom and humor is woven into the life of a little village stuck way back in the hills.
He has also, of late, been fobbing himself off as Mark Twain with some success. His Twain is wont to ramble on about his boyhood memories, life on the Mississippi, the Civil War, his recollections of his friend General Grant and his book publishing business.
Charles takes great pleasure in telling Brothers Grimm fairy tales. While most people can name a handful of Grimm tales, there are over two hundred stories that the brothers collected. Some real gems are not commonly heard. Be warned, however, he does tell them in their original spirit, under the belief that the "grimness" of Grimm serves a purpose, and should not be Disneyfied.
Now retired from gainful employment, Charles performs at theatres, listening clubs, schools, libraries, arts festivals and even a sculpture garden. He is also coordinator for the Lehigh Valley Storytelling Guild, and Pennsylvania State Representative for the National Youth Storytelling Showcase.
Testimonials
"Charles Kiernan painted images with words and expressions, entrancing three generations of listeners with his stories. He was presenting at our school festival with thirty other presenters and people stopped to tell us how much they enjoyed him."
- Haycock Elementary School TPO
"He is just wonderful! Pay him money."
- Jolene Kiernan (His wife)
"He really brings these characters to life. I had a wonderful time."
- Simon Reed
"A gifted storyteller with a quick wit and a love for the spoken word, Charles will captivate both young and old with tales that will tickle your funny bone while they warm your heart."
- Thomas Druckenmiller
Excerpts from telephone interview
Q. Tell us a little about how you became a storyteller and what your path has been.
A. We started—and I say "we started" because it was my daughter and me who got into storytelling. We home-schooled her and home-schoolers are always lookiing for opportunities for community activities. We have a friend who is the Youth Services Librarian at our local library and she was running an intergenerational storytelling group. That was perfect, so my daughter and I joined and that was about 10 years ago, anad we've been storytelling eveer since.
Q. Do you still tell together?
A. We did it together for a number of years, and about four years ago she moved to Savannah, Georgia to do the Ghost Walks through the city of Savannah. That was a great storytelling opportunity for her...so that left her poor dad on his own to reinvent himself as a storyteller.
Q. How did you do that?
A. I had already started to develop the Lost Dollar stories at that time and I just kind of latched onto that. The Lost Dollar stories are my own little Lake Wobegon. It's the structure on which to attach the Appalachian anecdotes and jokes, which aren't full stories in themselves, but using that structure, having the community and its people, I can pull these things together and make a story out of it.
•••••
CD available:
Lost Dollar Stories by Charles Kiernan
Appleknockers (musical interlude)
Iron Wedges
Henway (showcased in Story-Lovers World!, Program 5)
Lester L. Lester
Soldier & Joy (musical interlude)
Finny
Uncle Willard's Catfish (showcased in Story-Lovers World!, Program 5)
Old Mother Flanagan (musical interlude)
Alma and the Graveyard (showcased in Story-Lovers World!, Program 5)
City Slickers
Jack Builds a House
Camp Meeting 4th of July (musical interlude)
Contact Charles at:
cjkiernan@toast.net
http://www.lostdollar.net
•••••
•••••
Mike Lockett, the Normal Storyteller (Normal, Illinois)
Dr. Michael Lockett is an accomplished storyteller. He travels throughout Illinois and the midwest telling stories to audiences of all ages from pre-school through senior citizens. He is known for his audience participation stories and hiis use of dialects when telling traditional folktales.
Dr. Lockett is also a motivation speaker and workshop leader for teachers and school administrators, church organizatons and community groups. He is a frequent storyteller for schools and libraries. He has given more than 1500 presentations and storytelling sessions nationwide. He continues to promote storytelling in schools, libraries, churches and homes. Dr. Lockett's aim is to merge the gap between the tools of teaching and the power and history of storytelling.
Since the dawn of man, humans have communicated and relived history through storytelling. Today this is accomplished on mass scales through television and the world wide web (as you see here). However throughout today's accomplished technology, our culture has lost the power of "the storyteller." Dr. Lockett believes storytelling is a priceless and timeless tool for teaching that needs to be preserved He tells his stories with a joy that is contagious. Audiences love his tales.
Dr. Michael Lockett lives in Normal, Illinois with his wife Rebecca. He is a lifelong educator. He retired in June 2005 following 33 years of working in public education and began working full-time as a storyteller, keynote speaker and educational consultant for Heritage Schoolhouse Press, which produces storytelling materials, including auditory CDs. Soon, Heritage Schoolhouse Press will begin to publish children's books and storytelling books. Lockett's wife, Rebecca, retired as the Principal of Tri-Valley Elementary School in Downs, Illinois at the same time Dr. Lockett stepped down as Principal of Greeley Alternative High School in Peoria, IL. Dr. and Mrs. Lockett have two sons who are involved in computer engineering, home automation and music. Son, Mark, does the audio engineering and music for Lockett's CDs.
It is with pleasure that Dr. Lockett announces the latest product that he has created with the audio assistance of his son. "Tales from Around the World" was completed in February 2006. CDs are now available on Amazon.com and CD Baby. Be looking for this new product and two new CDs (coming in October, 2006).
•••••
Excerpts from telephone interview:
Q. Mike, tell us how you first entered the storytelling world.
A. Oh, I entered the world of storytelling in Sunday school years ago. I had some little old Sunday school teachers. I wnt to a Swedish Covenant church...and there were two ladies who would tell us stories. Sometimes they'd let their emotions get carried away and they'd have trouble completing some of the Bible stories. So I started telling Bible stories and all kinds of other stories as a child.
Then my parents brought home a series of encyclopedias, thinking that I would start readding encyclopedias, but instead I dove into the storybook collection that went along with those old World Books and started reading the stories from cover to cover. It was the old Richard Chase stories.
I started telling Jack Tales and I grew up with a lot of folks who talked with a southern twang and they all came up to the northern end of illinois to escape poverty—and southern Missouri, Alabama and Tennessee—and I could twang and I could start to pick up all the rest of the dialects, too.
Q. Did you sound authentic?
A. Well, I tell you what. When I was down south, some of the people down there for the National Storytelling Festival considered me one of the "folks."
•••••
You may read and download Mike's stories at:
http://www.mikelockett.com/stories.php
Click on any story to read:
Appalachian Tales
• Jack and the Goblins
• Soap - Soap - Soap
• The Journeycake Who Ran Away
Bible Stories
• David and Goliath
• Joshua and the Battle of Jericho
• Noah and the Great flood
• The Story of Rhoda
• Timothy's Head Start to Salvation
Fables
• No stories created under this category
Folk Tales
• African - The Lion's Minister of State
• Caribbean - Anansi and the Python
• Chinese - The Chinese Nightingale
• English - The Little Gingerbread Boy
• English - The Little Red Hen
• French - The Wooden Shoe Christmas
• German - The Porridge Pot
• Indian - The Blind Men and the Elephant
• Mexican - How Lizard Beat Big Deer
• Russian - The Poor Man's Ruble
• Swedish - The Elves and the Shoemaker
• The Three Bears
Holiday Stories
• Easter Customs
Native American Tales
• Pueblo - The Musical Waters
• The Coyote and the Turtle
Scary Stories (but not too scary)
• Slimy Green Fingers
Short Stories/Jokes
• Gettin' the Mule's Attention
CDs available:
Tales from the Hills is Dr. Michael Lockett's first storytelling recording and is now available to purchase online! This album includes all of your favorite Jack tales and more! This interactive CD will also help demonstrate how to get your listeners involved in your storytelling. Dr. Lockett is famous for his luring tales that keep his audiences glued to their seats! This CD includes such tales as:
• Lazy Jack
• Old Dry Fry
• The Preacher's Horse
• Jack's First Elevator Ride
• The Cat's Tale
• The Fat Man
• Jack and the Goblins
• The Big Toe
$15.00 Order CD Now! | $10.00 Order Cassette Now!
Available from:
http://www.ccnow.com/cgi-local/cart.cgi?mikelockett_CD001_http://www.mikelockett.com/merch.php
New Release
Tales from Around the World is a collection of ten stories from different areas around the globe as told by Dr. Michael Lockett, "The Normal Storyteller." Each story is told in a dialect that is representative of the area from where the story first was told. Area musicians helped Lockett add rich folk music after each song to add to the fun and beauty of this CD.
Contact Mike at:
http://www.mikelockett.com/home.php
•••••
•••••
